6 Reasons SMBs are Increasingly Relying on Outsourced IT Services
The concept of outsourcing services has some negativity attached to it – loss of control, high costs and often less than expected results. While outsourcing can be a poor arrangement for some services, IT isn’t one of them when it comes to small or midsize businesses (SMBs). In fact, more and more SMBs are finding that outsourced IT is a service model that fits their business with better IT support that allows them to focus more on growing their business.
If you’re wondering whether outsourced IT makes sense for your business or just curious about the benefits of outsourcing IT for your business in general, here are six common and compelling reasons so many companies are choosing to rely on outsourcing as their IT solution.
Outsourced IT can lower costs
Hiring an internal IT manager will cost you tens of thousands of dollars annually, and that’s not including any training, company benefit or recruitment costs. Many SMBs find that they can get an outsourced IT company for a more attractive fixed monthly cost that manages their IT needs 24/7.
Avoiding lost productivity
Without dedicated support, your staff spends hours trying to solve their IT troubles on their own instead of doing their actual jobs, which means lost productivity for your business. And frequent IT issues can also have a negative impact on staff morale. Increased productivity is often an overlooked benefit of outsourcing IT, even for smaller companies that may not normally consider adding full-time IT staff.
More system security
Security is extremely important for businesses in Arizona and elsewhere. Security threats abound in today’s highly connected world, from external cyber-attacks to exposure to viruses from benign web surfing by employees that expose them (and your business) to viruses and ransomware. It’s difficult to understand the impact of poor security until you experience a security breach, but the annual cost to US businesses in general run in the billions. When you outsource your IT, you have access to far better security and tools than you’d get trying to set up everything yourself for the same cost and reduce your risk to business disruption and security breaches.
Outsourced IT lets you focus on your business
Tech problems are an on-going drain on management resources. When you and your staff are free from using valuable time and effort solving tech problems, you are able to focus more on what really matters – on growing your business. Time is a precious commodity and the less you need to spend managing your infrastructure the more you have to grow and expand your company.
Advice from experts
When you take your car into the auto shop for one issue and the mechanic discovers something else you didn’t know was a problem, you benefited from that mechanic’s expertise. In the same way, outsourced IT gives you access to experts who can help you identify problems in your infrastructure before they become issues and provide solutions you weren’t even aware existed.
Access to the latest in technology
Are you using the right technologies and platforms to give your business the advantages it needs? There may be new technology solutions available right now that you haven’t discovered that may solve an issue in your business. The right IT provider will keep you up-to-date on the latest tech solutions and tools that could benefit your business and/or solve a longstanding problem.
Small and midsize businesses often view IT support a necessary evil and struggle with how to best manage it. Technology is the lifeblood of business today and using professional outsourced IT services to manage it is an attractive option for many. If you’d like to learn more about how outsourced IT may be a solution for your business, contact us.